Headphone Frequency Response

[Lotus 7]

Originally Posted by Berserk539

Is there a universal standard for the dB range with regards to frequency response in headphones? AKG boasts their K 701 (which I do have and enjoy) has a FR from 10Hz to almost 40kHz, but does not give a ±dB range. Or should I just assume it's somewhere around ±infinity dB?

I did see the Headphone.com site and viewed their measured response of the phones, around 25 Hz to 11kHz, ±5dB.

There is no "universal standard" for published headphone response used by all manufacturers. A spec like 10 Hz to 40 kHz means that maybe if the phone is connected to a coupler and a measurement microphone, some kind of response may be measurable at those frequencies, or possibly it's just a copyrighter's daydream or it may be that the response is 50 dB down.

Even response measurements using "standard" couplers don't often reflect the way a headphone actually sounds to a human listener and the same phone on a different head may have a different response because of physical differences in the enclosed volume of air within the ears. Closed back and open back designs can sound drastically different, even when they measure about the same on a standard coupler. With some phones, slight position shifts on one's head can significantly change the frequency response and the perceived sound.

It's always best to listen to headphones yourself under carefully controlled conditions, always trying to match listening levels as closely as possible. or to read reviews from trusted sources. Published headphone specifications are not regulated in any way and are essentially meaningless, especially when you are comparing specs from different makers.